Stunned couple unearths 150-pound mystery hidden beneath their backyard for decades

A couple in San Francisco recently unearthed a 150-pound limestone sculpture buried in their backyard — setting off a search to uncover who created it and how it got there.

Greg Gatwood was doing yard work at the couple's Russian Hill home in May when he came across what he initially thought was a piece of concrete buried in the ground as his partner Judy Gittelsohn stood nearby.

Gatwood told Fox News Digital he tried to pry the object loose with a shovel before grabbing a pickaxe — and then spotted what appeared to be lips and a nose "peering" back at him.

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"I thought, well, maybe I should just break it into smaller pieces," Gatwood said. "Then I realized it was a statue.

"It was like something you see in a movie, almost cinematic, you know — a big beautiful statue like this."

Gittelsohn said she was stunned when Gatwood showed her the enormous, two-foot-wide statue — and was impressed by the quality of its craftsmanship.

"I was just shocked," she said. "What an enormous find."

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She added, "I was surprised. I was just gobsmacked."

Three months after their discovery, the couple is still searching for answers.

Gittelsohn, a professional artist, said she researched the sculpture. She believes it dates to the 1930s and may be connected to artists working under the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

The couple's home is near the former San Francisco Art Institute, where prominent sculptor Ralph Stackpole taught for decades — leading Gittelsohn to believe the piece may have a connection to him or one of his students.

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One clue supporting that theory, she said, is that the sculpture was carved from relatively inexpensive limestone rather than costlier materials such as marble or granite.

Gatwood believes the statue may have been used as garden art and that it was eventually buried with time.

"It's quite possible this statue was displayed in the garden and not so much buried, but just lost," he said.

After the couple received local attention for their find, Gittelsohn said a 93-year-old woman took an Uber to their home with her walker and knocked on their door.

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The woman — one of several people who have reached out to the couple since the discovery became public — told them she had previously held a show featuring Ralph Stackpole's work. 

In September, the couple plans to put the sculpture on public display at the American Messenger Gallery in hopes that someone may recognize the piece or know who created it.

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"We think someone will eventually recognize it," Gatwood said.

The story comes about a year after a New Orleans couple made a similarly mysterious discovery in their backyard.

At the time, Daniella Santoro and Aaron Lorenz unearthed an ancient Roman funerary artifact that had been missing from an Italian museum for decades.